By a 48 – 43 percent margin, New York State voters approve of the job President Barack Obama is doing, his lowest approval ever in the Empire State. Democrats approve of the president 75 – 16 percent, but he gets a negative 12 – 82 percent rating from Republicans and a 44 – 46 percent split from independent voters. President Obama gets a negative 36 – 55 percent score from white voters, with positive scores of 93 – 3 percent from black voters and 71 – 17 percent from Hispanic voters.

Elsewhere, the story is Cuomo-mentum:

By a 59 – 25 percent margin, New York State voters are optimistic about the next four years with Andrew Cuomo as governor. Even Republicans are optimistic 46 – 39 percent.

But only 45 percent of voters say Cuomo will be able to fix state government, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds, while 42 percent of voters say Cuomo will fail in this effort. Democrats are confident 57 – 28 percent that Cuomo will succeed, but pessimism rules Republicans 57 – 34 percent while independent voters are split 43 – 43 percent.

And voters say 57 – 33 percent that the New York State Legislature will not cooperate in fixing state government. Democrats split 44 – 44 percent on whether the Legislature will cooperate in the fix-up, while Republicans say no 63 – 25 percent and independent voters are glum 66 – 26 percent.